The 5-Minute Guide to Sizing a Portable Power Station

Buying a portable power station is simple once you know two numbers: how much power you need at once (watts) and how long you need it (watt-hours). Here's the 5-minute method.

Step 1 — Add up your watts

Check the label on each device you want to run at the same time. A phone charger is ~10W, a laptop ~65W, a full-size fridge ~150W (but 600W+ at startup), a CPAP ~40W. Add them up — that's the continuous output your station must beat.

Step 2 — Multiply by hours

Watts × hours = watt-hours (Wh), the size of the "tank." A 150W fridge for 8 hours needs 1,200Wh — so a ~1,000Wh station won't quite make it overnight, but a 2,000Wh one will with room to spare.

Step 3 — Buy once

Go ~20% bigger than your math says. Startup surges, cloudy days, and the device you forgot all eat margin. Real examples from our store:

• Weekend camping / short outages: a ~1,000Wh station like the Cube 1000 (1024Wh) — phones, lights, laptop, small cooler.
• Home backup / fridge duty: a ~2,000Wh station like the OUKITEL P2001 Pro (2048Wh) — fridge, CPAP, router, and then some.

The honest fine print

Solar recharging is slower than wall charging — check the solar input watts before counting on it. And LiFePO4 batteries last thousands of cycles; older chemistries don't. Buy the chemistry, not just the capacity.